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Students splash out for quacking good causes!

Feathers will be flying when students from the University of Durham help to launch up to 20,000 ducks into the River Wear this Sunday (7 November) raising thousands of pounds for charity.

The big-prize plastic duck race in Durham City is set to cause quite a flap as the biggest in Britain this year. At 1.00pm thousands of yellow ducks will splash into the river off Elvet Bridge. They will be launched by the Mayor, Councillor Mary Hawgood, from four JCB’s on loan for the day from Diggerland.

Each duck will be sponsored for £1 by well-wishers and the first duck over the Kingsgate Bridge finishing line wins its sponsor £1000. Second over the line wins £300 and third home takes £200, followed by a host of smaller runners up prizes.

The duck race, sponsored by Northumbrian Water and promoted by the Durham Marketing Initiative, is being run by the aptly-named Durham University Charities Kommittee (DUCK).

There is still time to sponsor a duck and tickets are available anytime from Durham City Tourist Information Centre at the Gala Theatre.

Larger corporate ducks are also available for companies to sponsor at £25 each with the all-important winner’s trophy at stake.

Alongside the duck race will be plenty of other entertainment including a PA system from the Student Union playing an array of musical accompaniments from Kingsgate Bridge.

The race will raise funds for the international charity WaterAid, the Durham Mayor’s Appeal for the St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham City and the Durham City Christmas Lights Appeal. The race is one of many charity events run throughout the year by students from DUCK.

WaterAid, the adopted charity of Northumbrian Water, raises funds to bring clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education to people in Africa and Asia. Just £10 will provide clean drinking water for a person for their entire life.

Rachel Taylor, DUCK Officer commented: “This year’s event will be the biggest yet. It should be a brilliant day and 20,000 plastic ducks being launched into the River Wear will be quite a sight! It's great to see DUCK working together with the local community to put on a spectacular event like this, and raise thousands of pounds for some very worthy causes.”

The lucky winners will be presented with their cheques by Century FM DJs, Simon Cook and Lisa Shaw on the stage on the lead-up to the Durham City Christmas Light Switch-On on 21st November at 2.30pm. They will also attend a VIP reception at the Town Hall, where they will get to meet former Boyzone star and Coronation Street actor, Keith Duffy.

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For further details contact Tom Fennelly, Public Relations, University of Durham on 0191 334 6078.

For information about duck ticket sales contact the Durham Marketing Initiative on 0191-383-2932.